U.S. patent application number 16/038114 was filed with the patent office on 2019-01-17 for electrical receptacle connector with grounding plates intersecting with contact wafer assembly.
The applicant listed for this patent is FOXCONN INTERCONNECT TECHNOLOGY LIMITED. Invention is credited to TERRANCE F. LITTLE.
Application Number | 20190020152 16/038114 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 64999718 |
Filed Date | 2019-01-17 |
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United States Patent
Application |
20190020152 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
LITTLE; TERRANCE F. |
January 17, 2019 |
ELECTRICAL RECEPTACLE CONNECTOR WITH GROUNDING PLATES INTERSECTING
WITH CONTACT WAFER ASSEMBLY
Abstract
An electrical receptacle connector assembly includes an
insulative main housing forming a plurality of mating ports, and a
plurality of vertical wafers stacked with one another along a
transverse direction in a form that every stacked (differential)
signal wafer pair are spaced from the neighboring signal wafer pair
by a ground wafer in the transverse direction. The signal wafers
and the grounding wafers have corresponding signal contacts and
grounding contacts thereon to be exposed upon the corresponding
mating ports. A plurality of spring loaded common ground plates
extend in the transverse direction so as to reliably mechanically
and electrically connect the corresponding grounding wafers at the
same time for each common ground plate.
Inventors: |
LITTLE; TERRANCE F.;
(Fullerton, CA) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
FOXCONN INTERCONNECT TECHNOLOGY LIMITED |
Grand Cayman |
|
KY |
|
|
Family ID: |
64999718 |
Appl. No.: |
16/038114 |
Filed: |
July 17, 2018 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
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62533131 |
Jul 17, 2017 |
|
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Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H01R 13/6587 20130101;
H05K 1/0245 20130101; H01R 2107/00 20130101; H01R 13/6658 20130101;
H01R 13/502 20130101; H01R 13/6471 20130101; H01R 24/60 20130101;
H05K 1/117 20130101 |
International
Class: |
H01R 13/6471 20060101
H01R013/6471; H01R 13/66 20060101 H01R013/66; H01R 24/60 20060101
H01R024/60; H05K 1/11 20060101 H05K001/11; H01R 13/502 20060101
H01R013/502; H01R 13/6587 20060101 H01R013/6587 |
Claims
1. An electrical receptacle connector assembly including: a main
housing defining upper and lower mating ports opposite to each
other in a vertical direction, each of said upper and lower mating
ports forwardly communicating with an exterior in a front-to-back
direction perpendicular to the vertical direction; and a contact
wafer assembly assembled to the main housing and including a
plurality of grounding contact wafers and a plurality of signal
contact wafer pairs alternately stacked with one another along a
transverse direction perpendicular to both said vertical direction
and said front-to-back direction, each of said grounding contact
wafers including a grounding contact embedded within an insulator
and each of said signal contact wafer pair including a plurality of
signal contacts embedded within an insulator; wherein said contact
wafer assembly defines a plurality of slit structures extending
therethrough in the transverse direction, and a plurality of
interior type spring loaded common ground plates are inserted into
the corresponding slit structures in the transverse direction with
corresponding springs to mechanically and electrically connect to
the corresponding grounding contacts, respectively.
2. The electrical receptacle connector assembly as claimed in claim
1, wherein in each of said grounding contact wafer the insulator
forms a plurality of slots and the grounding contact includes a
main plate forming a plurality of slits in alignment with the
corresponding slots in the transverse direction to receive the
corresponding spring loaded common ground plates, respectively.
3. The electrical receptacle connector assembly as claimed in claim
2, wherein in each of said signal contact wafer pair the insulator
forms a plurality of slots in alignment with the corresponding
slots of the insulator of the neighboring grounding contact wafer,
respectively, in the transverse direction.
4. The electrical receptacle connector assembly as claimed in claim
3, further including a plurality of exterior type spring loaded
common ground plates attached upon the main housing with
corresponding springs to mechanically and electrically connect
corresponding ridges of the grounding contacts, respectively.
5. The electrical receptacle connector assembly as claimed in claim
4, wherein the each of the signal contact wafer comprises upper
contacts and lower contacts spaced apart from the upper contacts
along vertical direction, the upper contacts comprising a first
front lower contact, a first rear lower contact disposed over and
at a rear of the first front lower contact, a first rear upper
contact disposed over and faced to the first rear lower contact,
and a first front upper contact disposed over the first rear upper
contact and faced to the first front lower contact, the lower
contacts comprising a second front lower contact, a second rear
lower contact disposed over and at a rear of the second front lower
contact, a second rear upper contact disposed over and faced to the
second rear lower contact, and a second front upper contact
disposed over the second rear upper contact and faced to the second
front lower contact.
6. The electrical receptacle connector assembly as claimed in claim
5, wherein the exterior type spring loaded common ground plates are
disposed over the first front upper contact.
7. The electrical receptacle connector assembly as claimed in claim
5, wherein at least one of the interior type spring loaded common
ground plates is disposed between the first front lower contacts
and the first rear lower contacts.
8. The electrical receptacle connector assembly as claimed in claim
5, wherein at least one of the interior type spring loaded common
ground plates is disposed between the first rear upper contacts and
the first front upper contacts.
9. The electrical receptacle connector assembly as claimed in claim
5, wherein at least one of the interior type spring loaded common
ground plates is disposed between the second rear upper contacts
and the second front upper contact.
10. The electrical receptacle connector assembly as claimed in
claim 2, wherein each interior type spring loaded common ground
plates includes a plurality of springs respectively contacting the
corresponding grounding contacts in the corresponding slits,
respectively.
11. The electrical receptacle connector assembly as claimed in
claim 1, wherein the insulator has a plurality of first slots to
expose the corresponding signal contacts in the transverse
direction.
12. The electrical receptacle connector assembly as claimed in
claim 1, wherein the insulator has a plurality of second slots by
two sides of the first slots for thermal consideration either in
molding or in operation.
13. An electrical receptacle connector assembly comprising: a main
housing defining upper and lower mating ports opposite to each
other in a vertical direction, each of said upper and lower mating
ports forwardly communicating with an exterior in a front-to-back
direction perpendicular to the vertical direction; and a contact
wafer assembly assembled to the main housing and including a
plurality of grounding contact wafers and a plurality of signal
contact wafer pairs alternately stacked with one another along a
transverse direction perpendicular to both said vertical direction
and said front-to-back direction, each of said grounding contact
wafers including a grounding contact embedded within an insulator
and each of said signal contact wafer pair including a plurality of
signal contacts embedded within an insulator; wherein the grounding
contact includes a main plate with contacting arms unitarily
extending forwardly therefrom, the main plate has at least one
ridge extending beyond a periphery of the corresponding insulator,
and a spring loaded common ground plate is attached upon the main
housing with corresponding springs mechanically and electrically
connecting to the ridges of the corresponding grounding contacts,
respectively.
14. The electrical receptacle connector assembly as claimed in
claim 13, wherein said spring loaded common ground plate is
assembled to the main housing in a direction parallel to a vertical
plane defined by each wafer.
15. The electrical receptacle connector assembly as claimed in
claim 13, wherein said ridge is either at a top or at a rear of
each main plate.
16. The electrical receptacle connector assembly as claimed in
claim 13, wherein said spring loaded common ground plate is latched
with the main housing.
17. An electrical connector assembly comprising: a main housing
defining a mating port in a front-to-back direction; and a contact
wafer assembly assembled to the main housing along the
front-to-back direction, and including a plurality of grounding
contact wafers and a plurality of signal contact wafer pairs
alternately stacked with one another along a transverse direction
perpendicular to both said vertical direction and said
front-to-back direction, each of said grounding contact wafers
including a grounding contact embedded within an insulator and each
of said signal contact wafer pair including a plurality of signal
contacts embedded within another insulator; wherein said contact
wafer assembly defines a plurality of slit structures extending
therethrough in the transverse direction, and a plurality of
interior type spring loaded common ground plates are inserted into
the corresponding slit structures in the transverse direction with
corresponding springs to mechanically and electrically connect to
the corresponding grounding contacts, respectively; wherein each of
said interior type spring loaded common ground plates extends in a
plane with a corresponding spring extending therefrom wherein said
spring is essentially of a triangular configuration with a free
apex extending along both the transverse direction, and said spring
extends in a plane slightly oblique to and away from another plane
defined by the common ground plate with a minor angle
therebetween.
18. The electrical connector assembly as claimed in claim 17,
wherein said another insulator of each of said signal contact wafer
pair forms a first slot to expose the signal contact in the
transverse direction, a second slot for thermal consideration
either in molding or in operation, and a third slot to be a part of
the slit structure for receiving the corresponding interior type
spring loaded common ground plate therein.
19. The electrical connector assembly as claimed in claim 17,
wherein the interior type spring loaded common ground plates are of
two groups respectively assembled to the corresponding slit
structure from two lateral sides of the contact wafer assembly in
opposite directions toward each other.
20. The electrical connector assembly as claimed in claim 19,
wherein the apex of one common ground plate on one lateral side of
the contact wafer assembly extends in a first transverse direction
which is opposite to a second transverse direction along which an
apex of another common ground plate on the other lateral sides of
the contact wafer assembly.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
[0001] The present invention relates to an electrical connector
assembly, especially to contact wafer assembly thereof and the
so-called FP5 connector following the previous designs of which the
provisional applications have Ser. Nos. 62/367,098 filed on Jul.
26, 2016, 62/399,272 filed on Sep. 23, 2016, 62/412,841 filed on
Oct. 26, 2016, 62/425,627 filed on Nov. 23, 2016, 62/449,133 filed
on Jan. 23, 2017, 62/509,141 filed on May 21, 2017, and 62/522,113
filed on Jun. 20, 2017.
2. Description of Related Art
[0002] Currently QSFP-DD Specification Rev. 0.1 discloses a
1.times.1 QSFP-DD module has eight electrical lanes. Each of the
eight electrical lanes of the QSFP runs at the rate of 25 Gbit/s or
50 Gbit/s, thereby the QSFP-DD module support 200 Gbit/s or 400
Gbit/s Ethernet applications of. The QSFP-DD module has an
electrical receptacle. The electrical receptacle has an insulative
housing and four rows of electrical terminals received in the
insulative housing. Each of the electrical terminals has a
soldering section. Two rows soldering sections of the two top rows
of the electrical terminals are offset in a longitudinal direction
from two rows soldering sections of the two bottom rows of the
electrical terminals. It is noted that another design having the
fine pitch of 0.5 mm having the similar interface with QSFP is also
presented. It is noted that the single port receptacle connector
generally uses the horizontal wafer structures to integrally
assemble all the upper row terminals in one wafer structure and all
the lower row terminals in another wafer structure. Anyhow, the
dual port receptacle connector generally to uses a plurality of
vertical wafers stacked with one another in the transverse
direction wherein each wafer structure integrally assembling all
the upper row and lower row of each port belonging to the same
vertical cross-sectional plane. Notably, traditionally, in the dual
port receptacle connector the vertical wafer structures requires
every two (differential) signal wafers spaced from another two
signal wafer with a ground wafer therebetween in the transverse
direction.
[0003] It is desired to have the superior ground wafer during
operation for efficiently removing EMI (Electro-Magnetic
Interference) thereof.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0004] An object of the present invention is to provide an
electrical receptacle connector assembly with superior
grounding/shielding effect.
[0005] To achieve the above-mentioned object, an electrical
receptacle connector assembly includes an insulative main housing
forming a plurality of mating ports, and a plurality of vertical
wafers stacked with one another along a transverse direction in a
form that every stacked (differential) signal wafer pair are spaced
from the neighboring signal wafer pair by a ground wafer in the
transverse direction. The signal wafers and the grounding wafers
have corresponding signal contacts and grounding contacts thereon
to be exposed upon the corresponding mating ports. A plurality of
spring loaded common ground plates extend in the transverse
direction so as to reliably mechanically and electrically connect
the corresponding grounding wafers at the same time for each common
ground plate. The spring loaded common ground plates are assembled
to the vertical wafers either in the transverse direction, or in
the vertical direction perpendicular to the transverse direction,
or in the front-to-back direction perpendicular to both the
transverse direction and the vertical direction.
[0006] Other objects, advantages and novel features of the
invention will become more apparent from the following detailed
description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying
drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0007] FIG. 1(A) is a perspective view of an electrical receptacle
connector assembly according to the invention;
[0008] FIG. 1(B) is another perspective view of the electrical
receptacle connector assembly of FIG. 1;
[0009] FIG. 1(C) is another perspective view of the electrical
receptacle connector assembly of FIG. 1;
[0010] FIG. 1(D) is another perspective view of the electrical
receptacle connector assembly of FIG. 1;
[0011] FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the electrical
receptacle connector assembly of FIG. 1;
[0012] FIG. 3(A) is a further exploded perspective view of an
electrical receptacle connector assembly of FIG. 2;
[0013] FIG. 3(B) is another exploded perspective view of the
electrical receptacle connector assembly of FIG. 3(A);
[0014] FIG. 4 is a further partially exploded perspective view of
the electrical receptacle connector assembly of FIG. 2;
[0015] FIG. 5(A) is an exploded perspective view of the contact
wafer assembly of the electrical receptacle connector assembly of
FIG. 1;
[0016] FIG. 5(B) is another exploded perspective view of the
contact wafer assembly of the electrical receptacle connector
assembly of FIG. 5(A);
[0017] FIG. 6(A) is a perspective view of the ground contact wafer
of the contact wafer assembly of FIG. 5(A);
[0018] FIG. 6(B) is another perspective view of the ground contact
wafer of the contact wafer assembly of 6(A);
[0019] FIG. 6(C) is an elevation view of the ground contact wafer
of the contact wafer assembly of FIG. 6(A);
[0020] FIG. 7(A) is an exploded perspective view of the ground
contact wafer of FIG. 6(A);
[0021] FIG. 7(B) is another exploded perspective view of the ground
contact wafer of FIG. 7(A);
[0022] FIG. 7(C) is an elevation view of the ground contact wafer
of FIG. 7(A);
[0023] FIG. 8(A) is a perspective view of the signal contact wafer
pair of the contact wafer assembly of FIG. 5(A);
[0024] FIG. 8(B) is another perspective view of the signal contact
wafer pair of FIG. 8(A);
[0025] FIG. 8(C) is an elevation view of the signal contact wafer
pair of FIG. 8(A);
[0026] FIG. 8(D) is a cross sectional view of the signal contact
wafer pair of FIG. 8(A);
[0027] FIG. 9 is an exploded perspective view of the signal contact
wafer pair of FIG. 8(A);
[0028] FIG. 10 is a side view of the contact wafer assembly of FIG.
5(A); and
[0029] FIG. 11 is a perspective view to show how the spring loaded
common ground plates mechanically and electrically connect to the
corresponding grounding contacts.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
[0030] Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred
embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIGS. 1(A) to 11,
an electrical receptacle connector 100 includes an insulative main
housing 10 forming opposite upper and lower ports 12, 14 in the
vertical direction. Each port 12, 14 forms a mating slot 16
forwardly communicating with an exterior in a front-to-back
direction perpendicular to the vertical direction for receiving a
mating tongue of a plug connector (not completely shown but only
corresponding conductive pads thereon) which is generally made by a
printed circuit board with the corresponding mating pads on the two
opposite surfaces thereof.
[0031] A contact wafer assembly 50 is assembled into the main
housing 10 from a rear side, includes a plurality of signal contact
wafer pairs 60 and a plurality of grounding contact wafers 80, some
of which are alternately stacked with each other along the
transverse direction perpendicular to the vertical direction and
the front-to-back direction.
[0032] Each grounding contact wafer 80 includes a grounding contact
82 embedded within a blade insulator 90 via an insert-molding
process. The grounding contact 82 has a main plate 84 with a
plurality of slits 86 therein, two pairs of contacting arms 88 in
each of the two front mating regions 89, and a plurality of
mounting legs 83 at the bottom edge. The blade insulator 90 covers
both opposite surfaces of the main plate 84 and forms a plurality
of slots 92 in aligned with the corresponding slits 86 in the
transverse direction, respectively, and forms two mating areas 94
each in alignment with the corresponding mating region 89, around
which the contacting arms 88 extend. The main plate 84 forms an
upper ridge 85 and the rear ridge 87 respectively projecting out of
the upper edge and the rear edge of the blade insulator 90.
[0033] The signal contact wafer pairs 60 includes two wafers 62
each of which includes an blade insulator 64 with eight signal
contacts 70 embedded therein via an insert-molding process. The
eight signal contacts 70 are divided into upper contacts 701 and
lower contacts 702 spaced apart from the upper contacts 701 along
vertical direction. The upper contacts 701 comprises a first front
lower contact 7011, a first rear lower contact 7012 disposed over
and at a rear of the first front lower contact 7011, a first rear
upper contact 7013 disposed over and faced to the first rear lower
contact 7012, and a first front upper contact 7014 disposed over
the first rear upper contact 7013 and faced to the first front
lower contact 7011. The lower contacts 702 comprises a second front
lower contact 7021, a second rear lower contact 7022 disposed over
and at a rear of the second front lower contact 7021, a second rear
upper contact 7023 disposed over and faced to the second rear lower
contact 7022, and a second front upper contact 7024 disposed over
the second rear upper contact 7023 and faced to the second front
lower contact 7021. The insulator 64 forms two front mating areas
66 and a plurality of slots 68 in alignment with the slots 92 of
the neighboring ground contact wafer 80. The signal contacts 70
have different configurations and dimensions for complying with
different positions. Each of the signal contacts 70 includes a main
body 72 embedded within the insulator 64, a front contacting arm 74
exposed in the corresponding mating area 66, a bottom mounting leg
76 exposed under the bottom edge of the blade insulator 64. The
insulator 64 further has a plurality of first slots 63 to expose
the corresponding signal contact 70 in the transverse direction,
and a plurality of second slots 65 by two sides of the first slots
63 for thermal consideration either in molding or in operation. It
should be noted in the drawings, the conductive pads of the plug
connector including respective signal pads 102 and the frame like
grounding pads 104 are shown only for comprehension.
[0034] The key feature of the invention is related to the spring
loaded common ground plate assembly 30. The spring loaded common
ground plate assembly 30 includes two types, i.e., the interior
type and the exterior type. The exterior type spring loaded common
ground plate 32 is assembled upon the main housing 10 and latched
with the main housing 10 with the springs 34 abutting against the
ridges 85, 87 of the grounding contact 82. The exterior type spring
loaded common ground plate 32 is disposed over the first front
upper contact 7014. The interior type spring loaded common ground
plate 40 is inserted into all the aligned slots 92, slits 82 and
slots 68 with the corresponding springs 42 mechanically and
electrically connected to the corresponding grounding contact 82
within the slits 86.
[0035] In this embodiment, there are two exterior type spring
loaded common ground plates 32 either at a top or at a rear of each
main plate 84 of the grounding contact 82. There are eight interior
type spring loaded common ground plates 40 for each of signal
contact wafer pairs 60 and divided into three groups, with one
group comprising two interior type spring loaded common ground
plates 40 and the other two groups both comprising three interior
type spring loaded common ground plates 40. Three of the interior
type spring loaded common ground plates 40 are disposed between the
first front lower contacts 7011 and the first rear lower contacts
7012. Three interior type spring loaded common ground plates 40 are
disposed between the first rear upper contacts 7013 and the first
front upper contacts 7014. Two interior type spring loaded common
ground plates 40 are disposed between the second rear upper
contacts 7023 and the second front upper contact 7024. The main
housing 10 further forms a plurality of slits 18 to receive the
corresponding upper ridges 85 wherein the two recesses 11 expose
the upper ridges 85 for contacting the corresponding springs
34.
[0036] Similar to the structures disclosed in the previous
provisional applications, a base housing 20 is assembled to the
main housing 10, and the exterior spring loaded common ground
plates 32 are assembled to the main housing 10 after the contact
wafer assembly 50 is assembled into the main housing 10. In this
embodiment, the base housing 20 is assembled to the main housing 10
after the contact wafer assembly 50 is assembled into the main
housing 10 and the spring loaded common ground plates 32 are
inserted into the contact wafer assembly 50. Anyhow, in other
embodiments, it is possible to have the base housing 20 firstly
hold the contact wafer assembly 50 and commonly assembled to the
main housing 10, and have the spring loaded common ground plates
inserted into the contact wafer assembly 50 at last. Or the spring
loaded common ground plates are firstly inserted into the contact
wafer assembly and later held by the base housing 20 and lastly
commonly assembled to the main housing 10. Notably, the contacting
arms 74 of the signal contacts 70 and the contacting arms 66 of the
grounding contact 82 are exposed in the corresponding mating slot
16.
[0037] One feature of the invention is to have the spring 42 be in
a triangular configuration with an apex extending in the transverse
direction which is compliant/same with the insertion direction of
the interior type common ground plate 40 for facilitating
assembling. The spring 42 also extends in a plane oblique to and
away from another plane defined by the common ground plate 40 with
a tiny angle therebetween so as to result in deflection for
enhancing contacting the corresponding grounding contacts 82 in the
slits 86. Another feature of the invention is that the interior
type spring loaded common ground plates 40 are inwardly inserted
into the corresponding slit structures from two (right and left)
sides of the wafer assembly in an opposite way. Thus, the direction
along which the apex extends on the left side of the wafer assembly
is opposite to that the apex extends on the right side of the wafer
assembly. This arrangement is to shorten the common ground plate in
the transverse direction for manufacturability thereof.
* * * * *